And in the real world... M&S, Ebay, Nokia, GM and more

Marks & Spencer has made the first moves toward finding a successor to Sir Stuart Rose, by beginning talks with headhunters. A former Spencer Stuart headhunter, Jan Hall, is expected to be a candidate for conducting the search for Rose's replacement, who will take up the role next year.

Ebay yesterday agreed to sell 65 per cent of its Skype shares to a group of private investors. The deal, said to be worth $2billion, $1.9billion in cash and 125million in dept, would make Skype one of the biggest private internet groups.

Vivendi, which owns Activision Blizzard, one of the largest global video games companies, has enjoyed a significant surge in profits thanks to the popularity of its role-playing games such as Guitar Hero, World of Warcraft and Call of Duty.

The Belgian industrial conglomerate, RHJ Holdings, which is vying for the European portion of General Motors has increased its cash offer by €25million to €300million for a 50.1 stake. In a bid to further sweeten the offer RHJ has offered to reduce the sum of state aid it requested from €3.8billion to €3.2billion.